Panama Canal Cruise 2019 — The First Day

So, yes . . . a Panama Canal Cruise. 

There are them who could not be forced to put foot one onto a modern cruise ship . . . this post is not for them.

There are others who would decry modern cruise ships — such as the Coral Princess — as monstrosities that don’t hold a candle to ships of yesteryear like, for instance, the Queen Mary . . . I’ve now been on both of these ships, and I can tell you these people have a perception of the world not matching what reality offers up.

Sure, the Queen Mary has a history. It may even be an interesting history and one worthy of lauding. But, don’t compare ships and call one “classy” and “elegant” and call the other “trashy” and a “cattle hauler”. Don’t, because you have no idea how similar they are. Don’t because you have no idea how the Queen Mary appears to one who is not looking at it through eyes clouded by national pride. I’ll be doing a write-up on my visit to the Queen Mary, but first . . . 

That’s the Battleship Iowa, now a museum (just like the Queen Mary, but not as tacky). Shortly after leaving its berth, the Coral Princess glided past the Iowa. The light was poor (the ship was backlit) but with the combination of the Note 8’s camera and the processing of Snapseed, these photos are not too bad. 

By the way, that’s about as big as you’re going to see the photos until I get to a place with a better Internet connection. I’ll then post links to a SmugMug gallery with all these same photos at full resolution. 

Here is a shot of the whole ship. 

I have other photos taken with the Nikon P900 but those too will have to wait until the cruise ends.

Shortly thereafter, we were on the open sea. With little to see (besides the horizon), we went to check out the buffet. 

Fortified spinach and cheese tortellini soup, a small quiche, a piece of cornbread, and pasta shells with cheese. That was the first trip. We tried other stuff (fish, fruit, etc.). I’ll be doing a more comprehensive report on the foodstuff on a later post. 

But, I think people might be interested in seeing these . . . the desserts for the evening meal. 

Wait . . . I can do a bit better . . . 

We sampled a few of them but in my rush to eat them, I did not photograph the individual slices. 

. . . not that they survived long . . .

One was so-so, but two others were really good. We didn’t try them all nor did we avail ourselves of other (lesser) dessert items. We, instead, ate some pineapple and watermelon before going to the International Caffe and each having a latte to go. 

We did not try this cake and we assume it was only there for show. 

I’ll try and do the occasional post, but while the Internet is good enough for e-mail and casual browsing, editing posts and loading files is a tedious process. Sure, I like doing it, but I suspect as time flows, I might be less inclined to make the effort.  

I have a high degree of certainly a number of people will scoff and deride these culinary offering as “vulgar”. 

. . . what can I say; we are vulgar people. You know, the kind who likes “regular” stuff as opposed to snobbish offerings. All the food on here is perfectly fine for us. Perhaps, if I was part of them who consider themselves cultured elites, I too would turn my nose up at these food offerings . . . probably without ever tasting any of them.

Meanwhile, click HERE for the first day’s Princess Patter. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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